This report discusses the Partial-Birth Abortion Act of 1997 (H.R. 1122). The report summarizes the legislation and why President Clinton vetoed it. Moreover, the report includes President Clinton's recommendation to amend the bill for him to pass. The report also suggests that little data has been created on the issue, but that it utilizes what data has been created.

The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 1997, H.R. 1122 was vetoed by President Clinton on October 10, 1997. This legislation would have made it a federal crime, punishable by fine and/or incarceration, for a physician to perform a partial birth abortion unless it was necessary to save the life of a mother whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, illness, or injury. The partial-birth abortion legislation has stimulated a great deal of controversy. This report provides a brief overview of the abortion methods currently in use for which data have been published and some positions on the partial birth abortion legislation.

This report documents pilot and laboratory scale testing of activated carbon for use in the 200 Area Effluent Treatment Facility peroxide decomposer columns. Recommendations are made concerning column operating conditions and hardware design, the optimum type of carbon for use in the plant, and possible further studies.

Natural fractures exert a strong influence over oil production in Spraberry Trend Area reservoirs in the Permian Basin of west Texas. The importance of the fracture network has been known since the 1950s, but until recently, there has been very little detailed study of the fractures themselves. In 1996, a horizontal Spraberry well was cored as part of a DOE Class III Field Demonstration Project. Fractures from the horizontal core as well as other fractures encountered in vertical Spraberry cores were analyzed in detail for information on both large scale features including orientation and spacing and small-scale features such as the relationships between fracture mineralization and matrix rock composition. At least three sets of fractures are found within the upper and middle Spraberry cores. These sets have distinct orientations, spacing, mineralization, distribution with respect to lithology, and surface characteristics (Lorenz, 1997). Fractures found in the 1U zone of the upper Spraberry have a NE strike, and tend to be partly mineralized with barite, quartz, and dolomite. Distribution of these mineral phases can greatly affect conductivity between the fractures and the rock matrix. The 5U zone of the upper Spraberry contains fractures with NNE and ENE orientations. The NNE set of …

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This report is a guide on the Appropriations Process and the Congressional Budget Act.

A series of documents has been published in which the impact of various radionuclides released to the environment by Savannah River Site (SRS) operations has been assessed. The quantity released, the disposition of the radionuclides in the environment, and the dose to offsite individuals has been presented for activation products, carbon cesium, iodine, plutonium, selected fission products, strontium, technetium, tritium, uranium, and the noble gases. An assessment of the impact of nonradioactive mercury also has been published.This document assesses the impact of radioactive transuranics released from SRS facilities since the first reactor became operational late in 1953. The isotopes reported here are 239Np, 241Am, and 244Cm.

This document identifies and documents the justification for the safety classification of the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) buildings and structures.

The overall objective of this study is to evaluate pertinent design and operational parameters that would enable successful application of activated carbon adsorption for the reduction of mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. The study will evaluate the most suitable impregnate such as sulfur, chloride and other chelating agents for its ability to enhance the adsorptive capacity of activated carbon for mercury vapor under various process conditions. The main process variables to be evaluated include temperature, mercury concentration and speciation, relative humidity, oxygen content, and presence of S0{sub 2} and NO{sub x} in the flue gas. The optimal amount of impregnate for each of these carbons will be determined based on the exhibited performance. Another important parameter which governs the applicability of adsorption technology for the flue gas clean up is the rate at which vapor phase mercury is being removed from the flue gas by activated carbon. Therefore, the second part of this study will evaluate the adsorption kinetics using the impregnated activated carbons listed above. The rate of mercury uptake will also be evaluated under the process conditions that are representative of coal-fired power plants. Concerned with the ability of the adsorbed mercury to migrate back into the …

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This document defines the QA activities that will be Pursued during the development of the WRAP I DMS Release 2 software.

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This Engineering Report (Conceptual Design) addresses remediation of the plutonium-bearing solutions currently in inventory at the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP). The recommendation from the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is that the solutions be treated thermally and stabilized as a solid for long term storage. For solutions which are not discardable, the baseline plan is to utilize a denitration process to stabilize the solutions prior to packaging for storage.

The Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) has been proposed as a production facility for tritium and medical isotopes. A range of postulated accidents related to ex-reactor irradiated fuel and target handling were identified and evaluated using new source terms for the higher fuel enrichment and for the tritium and medical isotope targets. In addition, two in-containment sodium spill accidents were re-evaluated to estimate effects of increased fuel enrichment and the presence of the Rapid Retrieval System. Radiological and toxicological consequences of the analyzed accidents were found to be well within applicable risk guidelines.

A goal of this work was to reduce the cost associated with hydrogen ion reagent `A`. Microautoclave tests were previously conducted using `A`/dry coal = 1.0. This quarter test were completed using a ratio of 2.0. Conversion was poor at the low ratio. Additional reagents did not improve the conversion.

The report documents the maximum exposure for transfer of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) Isotopic Heat Sources from the 324 Building and placed in interim storage at the Central Waste Complex (CWC). These results are to be reported in the Environmental Assessment DOE-EA- 1 21 1.

This report discusses fast-track negotiating authority, which provides that Congress will consider trade agreements within mandatory deadlines, with limited debate, and without amendment. Environmental provisions are eligible for the fast-track procedure only if they meet at least one of the principal trade negotiating objectives.

This report includes a brief analysis of federal research and development funding trends for the past six years as well as R&D funding projects to FY2000.

This document represents comments generated from a review of Transnuclear`s Final Design Package distributed on December 10, 1996 and a review of the Final Design Analysis Report meeting held on December 17 & 18, 1996. The Final design describes desicn features and presents final analyses @j performed to fabricate and operate the system while meeting the Cask/Transportation Functions and Requirements, WHC-SD-SNF-FRD-011, Rev. 0 and specification WHC-S-0396, Rev. 1.

Functional design description for a Standard-E cabinet arrangement Standard Hydrogen Monitoring System Portable Platform.

A benchmarking study was conducted on behalf of the Department of Energy to determine the critical factors in successful utility geothermal heat pump programs. A Successful program is one that has achieved significant market penetration. Successfully marketing geothermal heat pumps has presented some major challenges to the utility industry. However, select utilities have developed programs that generate significant GHP sales. This benchmarking study concludes that there are three factors critical to the success of utility GHP marking programs: (1) Top management marketing commitment; (2) An understanding of the fundamentals of marketing and business development; and (3) An aggressive competitive posture. To generate significant GHP sales, competitive market forces must by used. However, because utilities have functioned only in a regulated arena, these companies and their leaders are unschooled in competitive business practices. Therefore, a lack of experience coupled with an intrinsically non-competitive culture yields an industry environment that impedes the generation of significant GHP sales in many, but not all, utilities.

As part of joint project between the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC), radioactive waste from four different ORNL tank farms will be immobilized. This work, which is funded by the DOE Office of Science and Technology, is designed to create a direct comparison between grouting and vitrification technologies. SRTC efforts have been focused on developing and testing glass formulations for the vitrification of the tank wastes. The radioactive waste is from four different ORNL tank farms: Melton Valley Storage Tanks (MVST), Bethel Valley Evaporator Service Tanks (BVEST), Gunite and Associated Tanks (GAAT), and Old Hydrafracture Tanks (OHF). The sludges in these tanks contain transuranic radionuclides at levels which will make the final waste form (at reasonable waste loadings) TRU. Glass is an acceptable waste form because of its ability to accept a wide variety of components into its network structure. This is important since the waste varies significantly from tank to tank and from tank farm to tank farm. Therefore, glass formulation efforts have centered on developing a formulation that is robust enough to handle large fluctuations in waste composition. Crucible studies have been performed with simulated GAAT, MVST and BVEST sludges. The …

The objective of the seismic reflection and side scan sonar survey is to determine the location, aerial extent, and depth of burial pits situated along the reservoir bottom of L Lake, Savannah River Site, SC. The results will be used in the overall characterization of L Lake by providing continuous profile line coverage of the bottom and subbottom sediment structure along the entire length of the project area. The results are also intended to supplement previous scientific information obtained from soil samples, aerial photography, and radiometric studies. Resultant information will be used as input for an Environmental Impact Statement of the site. Overall, the seismic reflection data will provide better descriptions of variations in the actual subbottom conditions and help identify the differing sediment layers. The side scan sonar will help identify the location of the burial pits and any other features on the bottom of the reservoir. A 3.5 kiloHertz (kHz), high resolution subbottom profiling system and an EG&G Model 260 side scan sonar system were used to meet the primary objectives of the investigation.

The cleanup of high level defense nuclear waste at the Hanford site presents several progressive challenges. Among these is the removal and disposal of various components from buried active waste tanks to allow new equipment insertion or hazards mitigation. A unique automated retrieval system at the tank provides for retrieval, high pressure washing, inventory measurement, and containment for disposal. Key to the inventory measurement is a three detector HPGe high performance gamma spectroscopy system capable of recovering data at up to 90% saturation (200,000 counts per second). Data recovery is based on a unique embedded electronic pulser and specialized software to report the inventory. Each of the detectors have different shielding specified through Monte Carlo simulation with the MCNP program. This shielding provides performance over a dynamic range of eight orders of magnitude. System description, calibration issues and operational experiences are discussed.